Velithra didn't remember walking to her next class.Her legs carried her automatically, but her mind stayed in the hallway — replaying the look in Kai's eyes, the words he almost said, the space he almost closed.
She didn't know what scared her more:that he wanted to reach for her…or that she wanted him to.
By the time she sat down at her desk, her hands still felt warm. Her chest felt tight in a way that wasn't pain and wasn't fear — something in between.
Her fake friends were talking around her as usual, laughing too loudly, acting like reality bent around them. But their voices felt like static — far away, unimportant.
Velithra was somewhere else entirely.
Kai was too.
Across the building, in his class, he kept tapping his pencil against the desk. He didn't usually fidget. He hated that he was doing it now.
He hated how distracted he was.How badly he wanted to see her again even though they'd just parted minutes ago.How close he'd come to touching her — really touching her — and how the moment still clung to him like smoke.
The teacher called his name twice before he even responded.
He wasn't acting like himself and he knew it.
He didn't even care.
Why do I keep messing up around her?Why do I look at her and forget how to breathe normally?
Kai rubbed the back of his neck, feeling heat rise to his ears — something that never happened to him.
He'd scared himself back there in the hallway.Not because he almost crossed a line, but because…
Because he wanted to.
Really wanted to.
And wanting things was dangerous for him.
His past had taught him that.
But Velithra wasn't like anyone else.And he wasn't used to wanting something gentle.Something soft.Something good.
Every time he looked at her, it felt like something inside him leaned forward and whispered, more.
More time with her.More moments.More closeness.
More her.
Kai shook his head, frustrated at himself — but the feeling didn't fade.
Meanwhile, Velithra stared down at her notebook, realizing her hand was shaking slightly.
She wasn't used to feeling wanted.She wasn't used to someone choosing her without hesitation.
And Kai didn't hesitate.Not with her.
Her heart fluttered — painfully, beautifully — at the memory of him saying:
"Walk with me again tomorrow?"
Nobody had ever asked for her presence like that.
Velithra's lips curved into the smallest, shyest smile — one she immediately hid behind her hand.
She didn't see the way her fake friends stared at her curiously, whispering behind her back again.
She was too lost in the echo of Kai's voice.
Too full of the warmth he'd left behind.
Too unaware that something between them had already changed — quietly, irreversibly.
And both of them could feel it.
Even if neither knew what to call it yet.